Environmental and economic assessment of structural repair technologies for spent lithium-ion battery cathode materials

The existing recycling and regeneration technologies have problems,such as poor regeneration effect and low added value of products for lithium(Li)-ion battery cathode materials with a low state of health.In this work,a targeted Li replenishment repair technology is proposed to improve the discharge-specific capacity and cycling stability of the repaired LiCoO_(2) cathode materials.Compared with the spent cathode material with>50%Li deficiency,the Li/Co molar ratio of the regenerated LiCoO_(2) cathode is>0.9,which completely removes the Co_(3)O_(4) impurity phase formed by the decomposition of LixCoO_(2) in the failed cathode material after repair.The repaired LiCoO_(2) cathode mater-ials exhibit better cycling stability,lower electrochemical impedance,and faster Li^(+)diffusion than the commercial materials at both 1 and 10 C.Meanwhile,Li_(1.05)CoO_(2) cathodes have higher Li replenishment efficiency and cycling stability.The energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of LiCoO_(2) cathodes produced by this repair method are significantly reduced compared to those using pyrometallurgical and hydro-metallurgical recycling processes.

Fractional Order Environmental and Economic Model Investigations Using Artificial Neural Network

The motive of these investigations is to provide the importance and significance of the fractional order(FO)derivatives in the nonlinear environmental and economic(NEE)model,i.e.,FO-NEE model.The dynamics of the NEE model achieves more precise by using the form of the FO derivative.The investigations through the non-integer and nonlinear mathematical form to define the FO-NEE model are also provided in this study.The composition of the FO-NEEmodel is classified into three classes,execution cost of control,system competence of industrial elements and a new diagnostics technical exclusion cost.The mathematical FO-NEE system is numerically studied by using the artificial neural networks(ANNs)along with the Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation method(ANNs-LMBM).Three different cases using the FO derivative have been examined to present the numerical performances of the FO-NEE model.The data is selected to solve the mathematical FO-NEE system is executed as 70%for training and 15%for both testing and certification.The exactness of the proposed ANNs-LMBM is observed through the comparison of the obtained and the Adams-Bashforth-Moulton database results.To ratify the aptitude,validity,constancy,exactness,and competence of the ANNs-LMBM,the numerical replications using the state transitions,regression,correlation,error histograms and mean square error are also described.

Environmental and economic assessment of vegetable oil production using membrane separation and vapor recompression

Solvent extraction of crude oil from oilseeds is widely applied for its high production capacity and low cost. In this process, solvent recovery and tail gas treatment are usually performed by adsorption, paraffin scrubbing, or even cryogenics （at low tail gas flow rates）. Membrane separation, which has a lower energy consumption than these techniques, spans a broad range of admissible concentrations and flow rates, and is moreover easily combined with other techniques. Vapor recompression has potentials to reduce the heat loss in association with distillation and evaporation. In this study, we proved the possibility of combining membrane separation and vapor recompression to improve the conventional vegetable oil production, by both experiments and process simulation. Nearly 73% of energy can be saved in the process of vegetable oil extraction by the novel processing approach. By further environmental assessment, several impact categories show that the optimized process is environmentally sustainable.

Identification of Heterogeneity of Social and Economic Environment of Land Uses in China

The robust principal component analysis （RPCA） is a technique of multivariate statistics to assess the social and economic environment quality. This paper aims to explore a RPCA algorithm to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of social and economic environment of land uses （SEELU）. RPCA supplies one of the most efficient methods to derive the most important components or factors affecting the regional difference of the social and economic environment. According to the spatial distributions of the levels of SEELU,the total land resources of China were divided into eight zones numbered by Ⅰ to Ⅷ which spatially referred to the eight levels of SEELU.

可生物降解塑料取代传统塑料--对碳排放的影响

In recent years,a great deal of attention has been focused on the environmental impact of plastics,includ-ing the carbon emissions related to plastics,which has promoted the application of biodegradable plas-tics.Countries worldwide have shown high interest in replacing traditional plastics with biodegradable plastics.However,no systematic comparison has been conducted on the carbon emissions of biodegrad-able versus traditional plastic products.This study evaluates the carbon emissions of traditional and biodegradable plastic products(BPPs)over four stages and briefly discusses environmental and economic perspectives.Four scenarios-namely,the traditional method,chemical recycling,industrial composting,and anaerobic digestion-are considered for the disposal of waste BPPs(WBPPs).The analysis takes China as a case study.The results show that the carbon emissions of 1000traditional plastic products(plastic bags,lunch boxes,cups,etc.)were52.09-150.36 carbon emissions equivalent of per kilogram(kg CO_(2)eq),with the stage of plastic production contributing 50.71%-50.77%.In comparison,1000 similar BPPs topped out at 21.06-56.86 kg CO_(2)eq,approximately 13.53%-62.19%lower than traditional plastic prod-ucts.The difference was mainly at the stages of plastic production and waste disposal,and the BPPs showed significant carbon reduction potential at the raw material acquisition stage.Waste disposal plays an important role in environmental impact,and composting and anaerobic digestion are considered to be preferable disposal methods for WBPPs.However,the high cost of biodegradable plastics is a challenge for their widespread use.This study has important reference significance for the sustainable development of the biodegradableplastics industry.

Resources, Environment and Economic Patterns and Sustainable Development Modes of the Silk Road Economic Belt

The paper analyzes the distribution pattern of resources, ecological environment, society and economy, and holds that it is conducive to Silk Road countries to carry out Omni-directional and multi-level economic cooperation. Then the article puts forth main modes and paths of sustainable economic development for the Silk Road Economic Belt （SREB）： ecological civilization mode, regional economic integration mode, transportation economic belt mode and international tourism economic zone mode. Finally, the article summarizes the key scientific issues for the sustainable development in the SREB and puts forward several action projects which include establishing International Scientists League and Think Tanks, establishing international information sharing platform and scientific policy-making system of ecological environment and sustainable development of the SREB, starting international science cooperation and technology traineeship program of the SREB, founding the international cooperation committee in the SREB and founding transnational construction and win-win cooperation mechanism of coping with climate change and ecological environment.

Environment and economic feasibility of municipal solid waste central sorting strategy： a case study in Beijing

Although Beijing has carried out municipal solid waste （MSW） source separation since 1996, it has largely been ineffective. In 2012, a ＂Green House＂ program was established as a new attempt for central sorting. In this study, the authors used material flow analysis （MFA） and cost benefit analysis （CBA） methods to investigate Green House＇s environment and economic feasibility. Results showed that the program did have significant environmental benefits on waste reduction, which reduced the amount of waste by 34%. If the Green House program is implemented in a residential community with wet waste ratio of 66%, the proportion of waste reduction can reach 37%. However, the Green House is now running with a monthly loss of 1982 CNY. This is mainly because most of its benefits come from waste reduction （i.e., 5878 CNY per month）, which does not turn a monetary benefit, but is instead distributed to the whole of society as positive environmental externalities. Lack of government involvement, small program scale, and technical/managerial deficiency are three main barriers of the Green House. We, thus, make three recommendations： involve government authority and financial support, expand the program scale to separate 91.4 tons of waste every month, and use more professional equipment/technologies. If the Green House program can successfully adopt these suggestions, 33.8 tons of waste can be reduced monthly, and it would be able to flip the loss into a profit worth 35034 CNY.

Synthesis of poly(silyl ether)s via copper-catalyzed dehydrocoupling polymerization

The development of efficient method to prepare poly(silyl ether)s(PSEs)is highly desirable.Herein,an environmentally sustainable copper-catalyzed dehydrocoupling polymerization was developed with good yields and high molecular weight(up to 48,400 of Mn and up to 97%yield).Monomers of different types(AB type or AA and BB type)are suitable to afford PSEs.The PSEs show good thermal stability and low glass-transition temperature.